1991 Starting from the core

In southern Connecticut, on a small island across the river from Long Island, a quaint villa stands slightly lonely.

The island is not big, only 1.8 acres. In addition to the villas, there is only a pier for cruise ships to dock.

However, compared to other small islands around Long Island, this island actually has a sparkling beach.

Obviously, the beach is man-made.

On the beach, four beach chairs were arranged in a semicircle. Two men and two women were wearing bathrobes and sitting together in front of the barbecue grill in the middle of the beach.

"Carly." Qin Si was a little afraid of the cold. Even though the temperature was 25 degrees today, she still wrapped herself up a little tightly and had no plans to go into the water. On the contrary, it was Carly who had already swam in the sea in her swimsuit.

She handed two skewers of grilled squid to Carly: "Let's have a taste."

Carly took the squid tentacles, tasted them twice and praised: "Wai Rui Guo! It's just that there's a little too much cumin."

"Barbecue without cumin is soulless - Gary, Mr. Zhang."

——Su Yuanshan brought these three families together to enter the merger process, and the governments of both parties also gave the green light, but... in Su Yuanshan's words, the long march of thousands of miles has just taken the first step!

When it comes to mergers involving tens of billions of capital, the interests involved can really ignore all appearances and relationships - these three are all listed companies, and all decisions they make must be responsible to shareholders.

Therefore, after two rounds of negotiations between the three parties failed to make any progress, Qin Si, as a representative of the capital side, decisively invited these big guys to his private island.

A gust of sea breeze blew by, and the charcoal dripping with grease ignited instantly, and the smoke suddenly rose and rushed towards Qin Si's face.

She quickly turned sideways, coughed twice, and rubbed her eyes again, but she accidentally made a big fuss about herself.

The three people on the side couldn't help but smile when they saw this.

"Stop laughing, Carly help me blow it, it seems like sand has gotten into it." Qin Si squinted and yelled at Carly.

…

After a brief interlude, the four people moved their positions again and collectively sat upwind. At the same time, the maid in the villa also brought red wine to the four of them.

"Friends, we really can't continue wrangling."

Qin Si took a sip of red wine, raised the glass and gestured gently to the three of them, then looked at Sanders with bright eyes.

——Among these three people, Mr. Sanders is naturally an "outsider". At the same time, AMD is also the party with the most requests during the integration process.

After all, Glofund has the ability to self-research and evolve.

"I also agree that we can't continue wrangling." Sanders smiled cheerfully and said meaningfully: "Your Shan always has a saying that I like very much. He said that the world needs diversity, and the same is true on the road to technological breakthroughs. "

"Therefore, it is necessary for the newly established ADO to ensure independent development and continuous investment in technology."

As Sanders spoke, he looked at Carly and laughed: "Miss Carly, do you think that's the case?"

Carly shrugged and just smiled without expressing any attitude.

Among the three parties, Xinghai is actually the most talkative. Xinghai is basically "supported" by Deyuan. Even if she wants to continue to invest in research and development on technology, her energy will not allow it - Xinghai was poor at first It started to develop in the direction of a holding company. Later, because it was really impossible to separate too many businesses, coupled with the semiconductor winter and the Internet bubble, she finally settled down and moved in the existing direction step by step.

Today, Xinghai's dual-core business continues to develop, and Internet business and consumer electronics products go hand in hand. Xinghai's market value has also surged with the recovery of the Internet and the end of the semiconductor winter. The market value exceeds 150 billion US dollars, surpassing Texas Instruments and second only to Texas Instruments. Intel has become the second largest technology company in the United States.

For Carly, who has tasted the sweetness of Internet + consumer electronics, abandoning the wafer factory, focusing on chip and product design, and increasing investment in the Internet field is the code for wealth growth in the next ten or even twenty years. ——This point has been unanimously recognized by Su Yuanshan.

Even Yuanxin has done this from the beginning!

Otherwise, the foundry would not be independent.

Of course, apart from the fact that she doesn't care at all, there is another important reason why she doesn't take a stand... She can probably guess that Sanders' attitude does not just represent AMD, but represents the entire "old school" of Silicon Valley. technology companies.

Who are these “old school” businesses?

There is Intel, there is AMD, there is Dell, there is HP, there is Compaq, there is Texas Instruments, there is IBM, there is Motorola...

With the acceleration of technological progress and the rise of the Internet, almost none of these old-school tycoons have kept up with the pace of the new era.

Take Motorola, the founder of mobile communications, for example. This pioneer created paging and the mobile phone industry. Since entering the 2G era, it has been quickly caught up by its descendants such as Yuanxin, Sony, Xinghai, and Nokia. Now that the world has entered the 3G era, not to mention leading companies like Yuanxin, even Xinghai can beat motorcycles to the ground.

As leading companies such as chip companies, AMD and Intel certainly have a much better life, but they also clearly feel weak - Xinghai and Yuanxin both have processor departments, and they are eyeing the markets of both parties. .

In this case, Sanders used his persistence to defend his "dignity", that is, to be able to make sense.

After all, you can’t leave everything to the juniors!

"Mr. Sanders, Professor Xiao Su also said not to reinvent the wheel. In other words, not to make unnecessary investments." Zhang Rujin looked at Sanders happily, with a smile on his face: " What's more, at present, the investment in manufacturing process technology has easily reached hundreds of millions of dollars. You must believe that we are professional in this regard."

"So do we." Sanders seemed to have no intention of backing down.

"..." Although Zhang Rujin was still smiling, his eyes glanced at Qin Si.

Qin Si smiled and nodded, sitting up straight.

"Jerry, you are not." She looked at Sanders with a smile.

Sanders immediately turned back to look at Qin Si, his brows furrowed slightly, feeling a little unhappy.

"As far as I know, Yuanxin is already planning to tape out 65nm processors."

"What?" Sanders sat up straight as if his butt was on fire, and then immediately looked at Zhang Rujin with wide eyes.

Zhang Rujin smiled and nodded: "We have planned to skip 90nm from the beginning."

"How?"

"Our chief technology officer has been involved in the entire development of the immersion DUV lithography machine. And that prototype machine has arrived in our production workshop a week ago."

Zhang Rujin said seriously: "We are confident that we can exceed the expectations set by Mr. Moore."

"Can we not mention Moore?" Sanders frowned deeply, and his whole person clearly showed a trace of confusion.

Zhang Rujin and the other two looked at each other with smiles and stopped talking.

——Legend has it that in the negotiation that decided the fate of AMD, among the Intel Big Three, Andy Grove was full of hostility towards Sanders. He didn’t even think about his old relationship from Fairchild, and he wanted to completely destroy AMD. Fuck to death. Moore also supported Andy because of his good relationship with Andy Grove.

But in the end, Moore and Andy followed the advice of Noyce, the father of Silicon Valley, and gave AMD a way out.

——The reason why Su Yuanshan and Sanders have a good personal relationship and can talk to each other is largely because Su Yuanshan and Sanders have the same respect and respect for Noyce.

Even Steve Jobs was like this - once, the young Steve Jobs could call Noyce in the middle of the night and wake him up to listen to his own whimsical ideas, so that the latter complained, "If Steve Jobs calls me so late again, , I will kill him."

Sanders fell silent.

Deyuan has never given out his process progress in formal consultations. He even said it through Qin Si just now... This undoubtedly put him in trouble.

Does he dare not believe it? Of course not.

But if you can ask clearly, can you tell it? Of course not.

Obviously, it is impossible for Deyuan to announce the true progress of Deyuan before the cooperation is reached.

But... as long as you have a little common sense, you will know that the information revealed by Zhang Rujin is enough to prove that Deyuan has a natural advantage that surpasses all wafer fabs in immersion lithography machines, and it has reached all wafer fabs. the front.

Listen, the prototypes have entered the factory! What is this nonsense……

Now Macron is about to officially receive orders, but it only takes less than a year and a half to go from prototype to mass production. How can this road be completed?

Seeing Sanders lost in thought, Zhang Rujin smiled again: "Mr. Sanders, maybe you have forgotten that the inventor of the fin field effect transistor is currently in Singapore, in the semiconductor R\u0026D center we jointly established with Yuanxin."

Sanders looked up again, and after a brief moment of surprise, his face instantly turned a little ugly.

——Zhang Rujin is right, he really ignored finfet! Moreover, without Sanders' reminder, he also remembered that the inventor of the finfet process also had a great relationship with Yuanxin. Even... Dr. Tang Wenjie was Su Yuanshan's senior brother!

Thinking of this, Sanders' breathing became faster.

Zhang Rujin looked at the other party with a smile. He had been reluctant to reveal too much about the relationship between Deyuan and Yuanxin. On the one hand, the technical direction needed to be kept secret, and on the other hand, it was also necessary to reduce the image of Yuanxin interfering with Deyuan.

"In the future, we will also be the most advanced in processes below 20 nanometers. Therefore, this is not a question of one more direction, but that ADO has no need to invest limited funds in research and development."

Sanders looked at Zhang Rujin closely.

"Because that's pointless."

Zhang Rujin finally took a deep breath: "As a professional foundry, Deyuan's most advanced manufacturing technology can unconditionally give priority to meeting your needs, and then expand technology and production capacity to ADO."

…

…

Five hours later, Sanders left the trail.

He got into the car and was silent for a long time before taking out his phone.

Su Yuanshan's slightly lazy voice came from the phone.

"Jerry, it's midnight here."

"I know it's midnight where you are, but there's no signal on your ghost island." Sanders was rude to Su Yuanshan: "Wake me up if you want."

"Okay, I accept this reason." Su Yuanshan laughed on the phone: "Jerry, happy cooperation."

Sanders raised his eyebrows: "Did they notify you by satellite phone?"

Su Yuanshan chuckled: "Unlike you, they usually don't call me in the middle of the night."

"..."

After hearing this, Sanders' eyebrows slowly lowered.

Frankly speaking, he is indeed wary of Su Yuanshan's powerful influence - as an old semiconductor man who has witnessed the rise and glory of Silicon Valley, Sanders naturally does not want to see the "roots" of Silicon Valley gone.

This is why he accepted the suggestion of Sematech, which he has always scorned, to retain AMD's dominance, especially to retain the independent development of process technology - of course the latter is also his own original wish.

Therefore, when Su Yuanshan said "please cooperate", he instinctively believed that the three parties today were joining forces to "seduce" or even "force" him to submit, and they were instructed and controlled by Su Yuanshan. That's why Su Yuanshan received the news as soon as possible.

Now that Su Yuanshan had guessed... then he felt a lot better.

He had to admit that this guy had always known things well and rarely made mistakes.

"Can you tell me how far Deyuan's manufacturing process has been advanced?"

"Sorry, Jerry, I know you are just purely curious. But I can't tell you anything until you implement the documents. In fact - because it is a leapfrog breakthrough, they may still face many unknown situations. and BUG. All I can tell you is that our tape-out time is next year, well, to be more precise, it is within a year - that is to say, in the second half of next year, you will face our 65nm multi-core Processor Challenges.”

Sanders' brow almost turned into a brook.

What he was most worried about was this.

AMD, after all, is a chip company. If we are two generations behind other people's processes in terms of high-end chips... what's the point?

But then, Sanders snorted: "Aren't you afraid?"

"Hey, I know you're not afraid, I'm just reminding you. Finally, happy cooperation."

"...I'm not very happy right now." Sanders exhaled slowly and hung up the phone: "Good night."

*

*

Su Yuanshan was lying on the bed, looking at his cell phone. When he saw the old man hanging up the phone with a pique, he was instantly overjoyed and his sleepiness completely disappeared.

Well, even if the sleepiness didn't go away, it was unlikely that he would be able to sleep.

After all, he had to wait for Zhang Rujin's call.

Winning AMD can only be regarded as the first step for the merged ADO. The next most critical thing is the arrangement of AMD engineers.

Since Silicon Valley's hopes for process advancement are to be completely cut off, the people at Global Foundry must find another place to continue to shine.